Copy Protection Problem

I'm posting this for a friend from another forum.

Basically, how can he get around this? :

Protected CD question
I was out doing some errands today when i swung by a local music store to buy a cd. I ended up bying Susie Suh's debut album and listened to it in the car while i drove. I thought it was a good cd (kind of like Sarah McLachlan) and wanted to copy it to my iPod once i arrived at home.

Now imagine my surprise when i find out i can't copy my music onto my iPod even though i bought the cd legally. It's apparently a somewhat new technology with some Sony BMG cds. Needless to say I'm beginning to really not like both the RIAA and the people who pirate tons of cds incessantly.

I found a thing where sony would email me how to allow iPod users to rip the cd on the computer, but when i tried that, Sony, in all their good customer service wisdom, sent me an email that for some reason states that the email could not be delivered. I tried this twice with two different email addresses too.

So out of desparation, i figured i'd ask if any of you were in a similar situation and did get the email and know how to get around this. I want to listen to my music on my iPod and i can't and it makes me sad.

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I've never had a problem with any copy protection on my Macs. Is he trying to do this with a Windows system or a Mac?

D3v1L80Y said:

I've never had a problem with any copy protection on my Macs. Is he trying to do this with a Windows system or a Mac?

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He wasn't clear about that. I've asked him what he was trying to use to rip it...iTunes or anything else but haven't heard back yet.

I'm hearing more and more about this kind of thing...makes me, a guy who has always legally bought CD's, want to rip some bootlegs just on general principles.

I did find this article...interesting...

Sony's 'copy-proof' CD fails to silence hackers

LONDON (Reuters) — Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method — scribbling around the rim of a disc with a felt-tip marker.

Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for deploying "hi-tech" copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a stationery store.

"I wonder what type of copy protection will come next?" one posting on alt.music.prince read. "Maybe they'll ban markers."

Sony did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Major music labels, including Sony and Universal Music, have begun selling the "copy-proof" discs as a means of tackling the rampant spread of music piracy, which they claim is eating into sales.

The new technology aims to prevent consumers from copying, or "burning", music onto recordable CDs or onto their computer hard drives, which can then be shared with other users over file-sharing Internet services such as Kazaa or Morpheus MusicCity.

On Monday, Reuters obtained an ordinary copy of Celine Dion's newest release A New Day Has Come, which comes embedded with Sony's "Key2Audio" technology.

After an initial attempt to play the disc on a PC resulted in failure, the edge of the shiny side of the disc was blackened out with a felt tip marker. The second attempt with the marked-up CD played and copied to the hard drive without a hitch.

Internet postings claim that tape or even a sticky note can also be used to cover the security track, typically located on the outer rim of the disc. And there are suggestions that copy protection schemes used by other music labels can also be circumvented in a similar way.

Sony's proprietary technology, deployed on many recent releases, works by adding a track to the copy-protected disc that contains bogus data.

Because computer hard drives are programmed to read data files first, the computer will continuously try to play the bogus track first. It never gets to play the music tracks located elsewhere on the compact disc.

The effect is that the copy-protected disc will play on standard CD players but not on computer CD-Rom drives, some portable devices and even some car stereo systems.

Some Apple Macintosh users have reported that playing the disc in the computer's CD drive causes the computer to crash. The cover of the copy-protected discs contain a warning that the album will not play on Macintoshes or other personal computers.

Apple has since posted a warning on its Web site.

Sony Music Europe has taken the most aggressive anti-piracy stance in the business. Since last fall, the label has shipped more than 11 million copy-protected discs in Europe, with the largest proportion going to Germany, a market label executives claim is rife with illegal CD-burning.

wow thats low

You might find this website interesting as well.

D3v1L80Y said:

I've never had a problem with any copy protection on my Macs. Is he trying to do this with a Windows system or a Mac?

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Update from my friend.

I want to rip it with iTunes so i can transfer to my iPod. The cd allows me to rip it to Windows Media Player only and rips it into a protected format (so i cant convert it to iTunes format).

If it helps any, this logo is on my cd.

<he inserted a logo here>

As for the sharpie trick, i think that might have been a workaround for older cds... im not too sure about this one. i'll give it a try if i can find some post-its or whatever lying around (i'll try the marker as a last resort... as much as the copy protection is irritating me, i dont want to ruin it completely so i cant listen to it at all ).

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When he rips it with windows media player what file does it save it as? If it saves it as an .ogg file then he can use a program called freerip to code the .ogg file to either a .mp3/.wav.

If he really wants those songs on his ipod he can try this. Get one of those audio chords that have the red and white hookups on one end, and the other end has a 3.5mm jack that would go into the Microphone In on his computer. Since he has that he could play the cd in the cd player and record it on his computer, then convert the recording to .mp3 or whatever file type he uses on his ipod.

Maverick records are another company that try to stop you from ripping the CD. There is a tiny little warning on the back as to the copy protection.

I am voting with my feet. I refuse to buy any more Maverick published CD's and will simply obtain the digital copies some other way. It really p****s me off as I travel overseas alot and dont wont to have to carry around the CD.

BTW, I own the CD already so I dont feel bad about downloading the album. I never got involved in piracy before until this company decided I was not allowed to rip my own music.

I was looking at BMG's website at the recent Dave Matthews band CD and I noted that they make no mention that it is copy protected. That really sucks. They should at least have to flag these media discs (they aren't actually CD's and you will note that they don't carry the usual "CD" logo) as what they are.

I just cancelled my membership with a polite note telling them why.

The DMB Cd was very easy to circumvent. First off the copy protection didn't work on Mac's and on PC's all you had to do was hold down shift when you inserted the disc for the first time to disable autoplay and you imported as usual.

The DMB DualDisc is not copy-protected most drives just have a harder time importing it.

The CD version of the Album does have copy protection and does say it on the package